Bee and Butterfly friendly
RHS AGM
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Potsize - 1L
SUNDROPS. Always interesting with pink and red stained young shoots that arch and drip with bright sunshine yellow flowers in summer. Autumn colour is a deep glowing red. Best in full sun. 50cmDiscount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or over -
Potsize - 1L
Onopordum acanthium. (Scotch Thistle). A stately architectural plant with attitude ! The large Acanthus-like leaves are densely woolly silver and tipped with real thistle barbs. At first forming an impressive evergreen rosette, during the second year, in April it mounts its advance skywards. A very stout, silver 'trunk' is winged, well clothed in woolly silver leaves and terminates in a broad candelabra bearing a succession of the big mauvey-pink and nectar-rich silver thistles that are depicted on tins of shortbread and which are beloved by the bees and butterflies. Usually monocarpic, this impressive plant wants lots of room and sun but is unbeatable to add structure to the border. usually self seeds very modestly so you can relocate the offspring to appropriate positions whilst small; although I have moved enormous plants in high Summer for safety's sake (they were very prickly by the path) and gotten away with it. Planted young and well fed they can top 2.5m tall.Discount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or over -
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- RHS AGM
Potsize - 1L
Produces a low spreading mound completely obscured in late summer by the mass of rich pink flowers crammed in tight rounded heads. A sight only enhanced by all the butterflies it attracts. Grow it either on its own where it will produce a dome or close to other short perennials where it will mingle its blooms with theirs. The name translates as Pink Dome. 30-45cm for full sun and reasonable drainage. Discount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or over -
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Potsize - 1L
This cultivar is quite distinctive as the flower heads are exploded into a bright pink cloud rather than the dense cluster more usually found. The longer stalks show off well red stems and calyces. Use this variety when you want a lighter effect. Equally as good as the other cultivars for attracting the bees and butterflies. 45cm for full sun and reasonab;e drainage. Will seed around, especially into gravel. Discount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or over -
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A fabulous imposing poppy, taller than most at 120cm with large blood-red flowers with petals like crinkled tissue paper. Each petal has a black spot at the base and a ruff of black stamens surrounds the urn of an ovary with its maroon lined felty cap. Beauty of Livermere stands taller and stiffer than most Papaver orientale varieties and has handsome and conspicuous leafy bracts below the flowers.Discount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or overLinks
Varieties of Poppy
Poppies in the Garden
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Potsize - 1L
Papaver orientale 'Prinzessin Victoria Louise' - Oriental Poppy. An Oriental Poppy with particularly large blooms in a soft salmon-pink with central black blotches. Blooms are quite wide opening. An extravagant splash of colour which will lounge gracefully out of the early summer border. Foliage dies away in late summer. 80cm .Discount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or overLinks
Varieties of Poppy
Poppies in the Garden
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<h3><span style="color: #99cc00;">Potsize - 1L</span></h3> Papaver orientale 'Royal Wedding' - Oriental Poppy. An Oriental Poppy with beautiful well formed creamy white flowers with contrasting black blotches and stamens. A poppy with great charm and refinement holding its flowers very gracefully. For full sun with a deep root run. 80cmDiscount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or overLinks
Varieties of Poppy
Poppies in the Garden
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Potsize - 1L
Penstemon 'Garnet' ( P.'Andenken an Friederich Hahn' ) A free flowering shrubby perennial with spikes of tubular deep wine red flowers and fine narrow foliage. A Penstemon of excellent constutution which is also attractive just in leaf. Gives a long and colourful summer display even when not deadheaded. Cut back lightly in Autumn; harder in Spring. Bred to improve the constitution of P.'Southgate Gem' by crossing it with (possibly) P.hirsutus by the Swiss breeder, Hermann Wartmann in 1918. Although not stictly correct,the name 'Garnet' is the name usually applied in English speaking countries and the one under it was introduced in the 1930'sLinks
Penstemon Compared
Botanical Style Photographs
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Potsize - 1L
Penstemon 'Hidcote Pink' is a free flowering shrubby perennial with spikes of pink tubular flowers with a red-marked cream throat. The flower spikes are narrow and the growth habit upright making a distinctive variety. Flowers are a clean sugary pink with red in the throat. A plant of excellent constitution introduced by Blooms in 1951 and assumed to have been raised at the National Trust's garden at Hidcote. Gives a long and colourful summer display Cut back lightly in Autumn; harder in SpringLinks
Penstemon Compared
Botanical Style Photographs
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Bee Friendly
Potsize - 1L
Penstemon 'Sour Grapes' ('Stapleford Gem') is a larger, taller cultivar with strong upright flowering spikes of creamy white flowers, painted lilac and pink on the outside. 60cm, flowering throughout Summer. This is a cultivar with a confused history. It is entirely possible that two similar cultivars were named 'Sour Grapes', one raised by Nellie Britten in the late 1930's and the other given to Marjery Fish in the 1950's. Further confusion comes from a similarity and mixed labelling in the trade with P.'Stapleford Gem'. I don't want to make any claims as to which ours is, I would just say that it is a strong grower of dense habit with distinctively dark, slightly hairy leaves which at some times of the year are markedly cross shaped in the way they grow on the stem. The flowers vary dependant on conditions but are a mix of lilac and blue shades and most lovely. If there is a Penstemon expert out there who would like to help with identification, I'd welcome the input. Cut back lightly in Autumn, harder in SpringLinks
Penstemon Compared
Botanical Style Photographs
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Potsize - 1L
(Penstemon digitalis 'Purpureus') This herbaceous Penstemon has much to recommend it. The foliage is richly beetroot stained, forming an evergreen clump in Winter. The flowers are white, stained with lavender and pink, rising up to 1m on dark stemmed panicles. Penstemon digitalis is native to the East of Canada, stretching down into the USA. Naturally it grows in moist sandy soils in full sun. Husker Red was created in 1983 by Dale Lindgren at the University of Nebraska and named in honour of the Nebraska Cornhuskers, an intercollegiate Athletic team. Named perennials of the year for 1996 by The Perennials Plant Association. Penstemon digitalis 'Dark Tower' (also one of Dale Lindgren's) is taller and darker in the foliage.Discount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or overLinks
Penstemon Compared
Botanical Style Photographs
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RHS AGM
Bee Friendly
Potsize - 1L
Himalayan fleece flower. (Polygonum affine 'Darjeeling Red') This is an excellent and very undemanding ground cover plant for almost any situation that isn't to dry. It forms a low mat of semi evergreen foliage that turns a lovely red in the autumn. From mid Summer through to Autumn it produced an abundance of crowded little spikes of flowers that begin a pale blush pink and gradually darken to a deep brick red, creating a nice mixed tapestry of colour. 30cm in flowers, July to October. Originates in a region from Afghanistan across to Nepal. Discount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or overLinks
Botanical Style Photographs
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Potsize - 1L
This is one of those plants that has really surprised us by how much we like it. It comes from a fairly robust genus where elegance is not usually the order of the day, but it really is a thing of great refinement. In habit it is fairly open and quite large growing at least 1m in each direction. The stems branch widely with each node bearing a long tapered leaf whose edge colours red, a colour that repeats into the long tapering flowering stems which are narrow and carry small starry white flowers which point and twist like those fireworks that whizz as they are sent skywards. An undemanding plant for a moist to wet soil and a must for the flower arranger. Good with Euphorbia 'Fireglow' or Schizostylis coccinea ''Major' Discount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or overLinks
Botanical Style Photographs
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Potsize - 1L
A recent addition to the range of Persicaria, being one of the darkest to date. Flowers are produced over a very long season in a rich deep congealed blood red. Height between 80 and 120 cm. A firm favourite of our good friend Dinah, and she knows a thing or two about Persicarias. Very drought tolerant. Discount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or overLinks
Botanical Style Photographs
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Bee Friendly
Potsize - 1L
Long spikes of Rose Madder buds, opening in narrow sections to a salmon pink flower to give a striking banded effect. A little earlier than some into flower from mid summer onwards into Early Autumn. Bred by Belgian Persicaria breeder Chris Ghyselen. 120cm in height. Good in a wide variety of soils providing it doesn't get too dry. Discount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or overLinks
Botanical Style Photographs
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Potsize - 1L
This is one of the many varieties bred by the Belgian Landscape designer Chris Ghyselen. It is like a shorter, more floriferous form of P.amplexicaule Alba, growing 90-120cm in height. The leaves are long and pointed, forming an attractive feature on their own. July to October. for sun to part shade. Discount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or overLinks
Botanical Style Photographs
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Potsize - 1L
This variety was a chance seedling identified by Alan Bloom. It is shorter than the species with an extended flowering season all the way from July through to November. The flowers are a rich magenta pink with electric blue stamens. Height 100cm (sometimes more) by 70cm wide. Very drought tolerant. Discount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or overLinks
Botanical Style Photographs
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Potsize - 1L
Persicaria microcephala 'Red Dragon'. This is a really excellent foliage plant if you want to add a dramatic splash of burgundy foliage into a scheme. You can either leave it to grow to its full height of about 1m with terminal clusters of white flowers or regularly trim it to the base to produce fresher stronger coloured growth. The leaves tend to be coloured in 3 patches, a dark triangle at the base, followed by a silvered 'V' and finally the red main part of the leaf. They can be rather changeable in colour. New growth in good light is rich burgundy, but later in the season it tends more towards brown and can be quite green in low light or shade. Don't worry if the early growth gets frosted off, which it often does, it soon recovers.Links
Botanical Style Photographs
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Potsize - 1L
An exceptionally pure white Phlox with large dense heads of flowers (6-9") of good substance. Grows to 3' (1m) and from its initial flowering in July it is capable of repeat flowering until September if dead-headed and well cared for. Superb, heady, rich fragrance. Nice apple-green foliage is resistant to powdery mildew and even spotting providing conditions are good. This variety was discovered in its native America as a chance seedling. For full sun to partial shade in a moist fertile soil with plenty of organic matter. 36-40". Native Phlox paniculata are reserved and nurtured by the Brandywine Conservancy Volunteers at Chadd's Ford, Pennsylvania. In August 1987, the Phlox seedlings were inspected by the coordinator and Richard Simon of Bluemount Nurseries. Together they selected a white fragrant form with clean foliage and it was named 'David' by Mrs FM Mooberry, the project coordinator, for her husband. 'David' may well be a direct descendant of the original Phlox sent to Europe in 1930 by John Bartram. It was 'Perennial of the Year' in America in 2002 Discount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or overLinks
Phlox Compared
Botanical Style Photographs
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Potsize - 1L
This a particularly striking cultivar with a broad creamy white edge to the leaves. Despite the lack of chlorophyll it is a fine vigorous clone which will make a strong clump. The flowers are white with a pink central stain. Darwin's Joyce / Choice is synonymous with Norah Leigh, but is a particularly robust. Named for the mother of Mrs Joan Elliott, the Elliots being a well known nursery family. 90-100cm Discount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or overLinks
Phlox Compared
Botanical Style Photographs
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Good for Bees
Potsize - 1L
I've had this plant for at least 20 years. It was originally spotted by Carol Klein at Glebe Cottage in Devon but seems to have largely passed out of cultivation. This is a pity because it's a real favourite of mine. It produces soft clusters of delicious pale lilac flowers, which open paler and sport lovely orange stamens. It is sterile and so is very long flowering and non seeding. It is prone to mildew later in the season, especially in hot weather, but it soon bounces back if trimmed off. Late Spring to early Summer. for moisture retentive soil in sun or part shade. 60cmDiscount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or overLinks
Polemonium Compared
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Potsize - 1L
Polemonium 'Lambrook Mauve' is a beautiful short growing Jacob's Ladder with fine filigree foliage and an abundance of mauve flowers, enhanced by the darker stems. Every shoot that emerges divides and divides with terminal flowers appearing on every branch. If you keep cutting back spent flowering shoots, this Jacob's Ladder will go on and flowering for months in a lovely warm lavender tone. Excellent at the edge of any bed. best in sun Discount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or overLinks
Polemonium Compared
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Potsize - 1L
Polemonium yezoense var. hidakanum 'Purple Rain'. Beautiful Jacob's Ladder with fine filigree foliage, tinted purple and surmounted by an abundance of cobalt-blue flowers. Excellent at the edge of any bed. Grows best in sun. 50cm. The colour of the foliage is stronger in cooler weather and in brighter locations. Cut the spent flower stems hard back to rejuvenate the plant and enjoy a second flush of flowers. Avoid very dry locations which will leave the plants more vulnerable to mildew.Discount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or overLinks
Polemonium Compared
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Potsize - 1L
Potentilla atrosanguinea var argyrophylla 'Scarlet Starlit'. This is a compact, neat potentilla which really packs a punch. The foliage is an asset all thorugh the year being silvery on account of a covering of silken hairs. The flowers are a deep blood red, produced on lax, branching stems. This is the sort of plant that is really easy to squeeze in at the front of border and well worth the effort. For full sun. 30cmDiscount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or over -
Potsize - 1L
This is a compact, neat potentilla which really packs a punch. The foliage is an asset all thorugh the year being covered in silky hairs and looking for all the world like silvery strawberry leaves. This wild form has flowers that are yellow-orange with a red eye, produced on lax, branching stems. This is the sort of plant that is really easy to squeeze in at the front of border and well worth the effort. For full sun. 40cmDiscount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or over -
Potsize - 1L
Brilliant pink strawberry-like flowers with cherry red eyes produced in profusion from May to July over mounds of rich green, fine fingered foliage. More compact and softer coloured than Potentilla 'Miss Willmott'. 30 x 45cmDiscount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or over -
Potsize - 1L
Potentilla nepalensis 'Ron McBeath'. This potentilla is unlikely to be overlooked when it produces its mass of carmine pink flowers in mid summer. With dense foliage this is a real showstopper for the front of a sunny border. A more compact form than 'Miss Willmott'. 30cm x 45cm Discount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or over -
Potsize - 1L or 9cm, please choose below
Primula florindae (himalayan cowslip). A primula that combines great poise and charm with stalwart reliability. From a stout clump of rounded leaves come 60-90cm stems from which hang an ever increasing number of pale lemon fragrant flowers dusted on the outside with a pale yellow farina. The scent is the most delicious and complex of any of the primulas, rich and heady like a sweet nose full of Pears soap. I think it ranks as one of the best perfumes of the year - right up there with the best of the roses and so easy to grow as well. Any moist to soggy soil. Discovered by Frank Kingdon-Ward and named by him after his 1st wife, the tall blonde Florinda. Discount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or overLinks
Primula Compared
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Potsize - 1L
This variety is a cross made between R.aesculifolia and R.podophylla by Eric Smith and Jim Archibald at the Plantsman Nursery. The leaves are like R.podophylla except that they are longer in each segment relative to the width and larger overall. The ends of the leaves escecially will take on red tones during the Summer months, more so than R.podophylla under the same conditions. The impressive flower spike is tall, creamy white and columnar.Links
Botanical Style Photographs
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RHS AGM
Potsize - 1L
As its name suggests, the leaves of this Rodgersia are like the Horse Chestnut. Like podophylla, they are palmate, with all the leaflets arising from a central point but unlike it the leaf ends are much more rounded with the whole leaf outline being round too. They can be up to 50cm across. The flowers are white and are carried in a lax arching panicle on rusty stems up to 2m long. Farrer, who first saw this in Western China described it as a magnificent sight with huge clumps of large metallic leaves. There are many forms of this species in cultivation. -
Potsize - 1L
A fantastic foliage plant for a moist position in plenty of space. Each leaf is palmate, up to 30cm plus across, with 5 leaflets that end in a squared off apex with three pointed drip tips. In Spring the leaves emerge beautifully bronzed, a colour that fades to a fresh apple green as the season progresses. Given time it will spread to a substantial clump. Flowers creamy white in an impressive fluffy looking column. The only species native to Japan and Korea and also the first to be introduced into cultivation by an expedition lead by Admiral John Rodgers.Links
Botanical Style Photographs
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Rudbeckia triloba 'Prairie Glow'. A real beauty for the Summer and Autumn garden. A mass of small, black-eyed daisies are well spaced out all over a bush 3-4ft tall like a warm glowing sunset. The new flowers are reddish with yellow tips but as they mature the red bleeds until no two flowers are alike. A plant that manages impact without being over dense. July-September. This Rudbeckia can be so floriferous that it frequently flowers itself into an early grave. Hence it can be best to treat it as potentially annual.Discount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or overLinks
Rudbeckia Compared
Botanical Style Photographs
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Salvia nemorosa 'Caradonna'. A cultivar bred by Beate Zillmer of Zillmer Pflanzen in Uchte, Germany. Lovely salvia with an upright bushy habit. The flowers are a rich violet blue, carried on narrow spikes and enhanced by the purple black stems and blue green foliage. Best grown in full sun. 90cm. Taller than East Friesland and much darker.Discount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or overLinks
Salvia Compared
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Bee Friendly
Potsize - 1L
A sky blue version of these lovely large flowered, perennial salvias. First flowering starts in june and July, but if dead-headed flowers for a second time in September. 50 cm. Border Ballet series.Bee Friendly
Discount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or overLinks
Salvia Compared
Botanical Style Photographs
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Bee Friendly
Potsize - 1L
Salvia pratensis 'Swan Lake'. Good, reliable perennial sage for the front section of any border. Upright spikes carry relatively dense heads of pure white flowers. 50cm. Summer flowering. reblooms if cut back after first flowering. Originally a sage of meadows and hence quite amenable to naturalising.Good for Bees
Discount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or overLinks
Salvia Compared
Botanical Style Photographs
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Bee Friendly
Potsize - 1L
Whorled Sage. Similar in habit to 'Purple Rain', this sage has attractive lyre shaped grey-green fuzzy leaves which forma nice mound and decorate the arching flower spikes. These terminate in whorls of grey-green calyces from which peep out pure white nepeta-like blooms over a long period, many weeks if they are regularly dead-headed. 45cm, for full sun, drought tolerant. Easy and undemanding.Bee Friendly
Discount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or overLinks
Salvia Compared
Botanical Style Photographs
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RHS AGM
Potsize - 1L
Salvia sylvestris 'Mainacht' (Maynight) is an excellent garden hybrid producing a long display in May and June of richest deep violet flowers on short flowering spikes. The habit tends to be somewhere in between varieties like the denser Salvia 'East Friesland' and the more open pratensis types like Salvia 'Twilight Serenade'. Height 60cm Best grown in full sun. Cut back after flowering to encourage a second flowering.Discount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or overLinks
Salvia Compared
Botanical Style Photographs
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Sanguisorba 'Chocolate Tip'. All the wow factor of 'Arnhem' and its smart little flowers but on a more modest scale of plant. The foliage still makes a luxurious mound but is finer in all its aspects than either 'Arnhem' or menziesii and shows a red midrib. The flowers are perhaps a shade darker and the flowering stems are plentiful and rise about 3 feet. It manages to make a statement in the border without adding too much weight.Links
Botanical Style Photographs
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Potsize - 1L
Sanguisorba 'Pink Tanna'. This is delightful member of an increasingly trendy genus. Each flower is a tight pink cheese puff, made fluffy with an all round coating of black tipped, white stamens. The flowers waft in the wind making a see-through haze of pink and white. One of those plants that is lovely from a distance and intriguing on close inspection. A magnet to insects and needs no staking. Attractive foliage, with leaves that are pinnate like a Rowan tree, form spreading low clumps. This is the pink member of the 'Tanna' series of sanguisorba, being about mid height in the range that sanguisorba grow at 60-80cm. Great Burnet, Burnet Bloodroot Discount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or overLinks
Botanical Style Photographs
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Potsize - 1L
A very useful dwarf selection of these interesting perennials. Mounds of finely divided attractive foliage are covered with dark burgundy cone flowers, all carried on wiry stems 30cm high in mid-summer. Makes a great edging plant or architectural vertical accent in short planting schemes. Super cut flower. Sun to Partial shade, any soil that is not too dry. Discount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or overLinks
Botanical Style Photographs
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Potsize - 1L
Sanguisorba menziesii. An unusual and rather special plant for the summer border. Lovely mounds of dissected and smartly toothed grey-green leaves emerge early and act as a valuable foil for Spring bulbs. Then in June it sends up lots of long wiry self-supporting stems, each crowded with neat, almost cone-like flowers, each tightly packed with dried blood red florets which then erupt into shaggy pink foxtails. Makes an interesting focal point and especially good as a cut flower.Links
Botanical Style Photographs
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Potsize - 1L
This is a fairly new variety. What distinguishes it is its dense, rounded habit and particularly large flower heads which are long and narrow and a deep rich congealed blood red. 100cm in flower, July to September.Links
Botanical Style Photographs
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Good for Bees
Potsize - 1L
Like a half sized, shorter version of Sanguisorba 'Arnhem', this lovely sanguisorba sports waving heads of raspberry red cone-like flowers on stiff stems above pinnatifid foliage. For full sun but not too dry borders. Flowering in mid Summer. Korea. 4 feet high.Discount of 25p per plant for quantities of 3 or overLinks
Botanical Style Photographs
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Potsize - 1L
The leaves are sea-green, very like the leaves of our native Rowan in shape, with delicately crimped edges picked out in a bright cream. It isn't an in-your-face variegation, its just enough to pick out the leaf shape and lighten the foliage effect. The cone-like flower heads are carried on stiff widely branched stems standing up to 6ft tall Each one is 3cm long, consisting of dozens of tiny burgundy flowers. Ruddy brown stems add to the whole effect.Links
Botanical Style Photographs
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Potsize - 1L
I keep wanting to call this one 'Beaujolias' rather than 'Bordeaux', but then again after a glass or two of either what does it matter, the plant is still lovely. It sits about mid height amongst the Sanguisorbas, half way between 'Arnhem' and 'Chocolate Tip' and about in the middle for colour as well. It is a deep burgundy, (there goes another), less red than 'Arnhem' and less sombre than 'Chocolate Tip' and flowers in late summer on stiff swaying stems up to 1.5m tall.Links
Botanical Style Photographs